I love chicken. I love fast food that isn't going to kill me. I love a simple menu. I love Nandos.
===Why I love Nandos==
"So where shall we eat tonight? I really don't feel like cooking."
" Me too, erm...didn't you say you wanted to take me to that Nandos place? I've never heard of it."
"Yeah let's do that ..I think there's one in Bayswater. Oh and they're building one on Gloucester Road."
"I've never been before, is it good?"
"It's a little different, but it's cheap and quick."
"Perfect."
Nandos is fast food done properly. If you have chicken cravings, Nandos is the place to satisfy your needs, and it has saved me from a dinner of pot noodles more times than I care say.
===The Food===
Well, it's chicken and it works like this. They have different chicken meals you can try: quarter chicken, half chicken, chicken burger, chicken wrap and so on. So
you pick how much chicken you want and in what way you want it served. Then, you choose how spicy you want it. You can choose from Lemon and Herb, Medium, Hot and Very Hot. Please don't try to show off to your friends about how much "hot" you can handle by going for the Very Hot option, because it will kill you - crying is not a way to look good in front of your friends! If you can actually handle it, then try it! I've even found a faceook group of ex Nandos employees where they said that they'd leave a couple of chicken pieces in the extra hot all day waiting for that show off trying to look big, and then watch him squirm! You may find that evil, personally I find it quite funny.
There's a wide array of starters including olives which are rather nice, although perhaps there's a little too much garlic. For pudding you can have a never ending amount of frozen yoghurt, which is excessively nice, but does make your head hurt. There are kids options; chicken-only options (no side orders); combi plates for everyone to share from; various different side orders and more besides.
The only complaint I have about the menu is that once you've been there more than a few times, you might start to get a little bored with the selection. I found that happening to me, so I decided I'd have the same thing pretty much every time to save looking at the menu (Chicken wrap with chips and bottomless coke!)
Nandos caters for vegetarians, but not to any great extent. You can have a vegeburger or some bean wrap thing which I've been told is very nice, but I've never tried it myself. To be honest, the point of Nandos isn't really the food (which is all very good), it's all about...
The Way It's Done
You don't sit down, wait 5 minutes for someone to come over and take your drinks order, then wait another 10 minutes for drinks, then wait 20 minutes to order food, and so on. You chose something, queue up at the counter, place your order all at once and pay, before you've eaten. You're food will be with you within about 5 to 10 minutes. It's fast food except that you don't feel like each mouthful is taking you closer and closer to that inevitable "American Brand Fast Food Chain Store" (so I don't get sued, you all know who I mean) heart attack.
You don't get a glass of coke, you get given a glass and have as many refills as you like. You can take different sauces to go on your food and you pick up your own cutlery. There's definitely a DIY sense about the place, but I enjoy it. They even manage to crowbar some jokes into the place - for example for a long time the napkins had the phrase "Wipe that smile off your face" on them. I like that. I like Nandos because it's different.
It's also relatively cheap for what it is - you can go in with a tenner in your pocket and come out with change, and a happily full stomach. There are lots and lots (and lots) of restaurants now, although I believe most of them are in London. Their website will tell you where they all are.
In Conclusion
This hasn't been one of my long long reviews because there isn't all that much to say. Nandos is simply a place that works. You go in hungry, you come out full, and you've eaten good, cheap food to do it. Perfect.
Thanks for reading.
Michael
http://www.nandos.co.uk/
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Advantages: Full of flavour and perfect for sharing with the unique Nando's Peri-Peri taste. Disadvantages: They have the dangerous combination of being both moreish and pricey !!!
jedimastergray73 23.09.2009 (23.09.2009)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
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